Publication Ethics, Authorship and Conflicts of Interest
The editors follow the COPE Core Practices (https://publicationethics.org/core-practices), the Principles of Transparency and Best Practice in Scholarly Publishing, version 4.0 of 15 September 2022 (https://publicationethics.org/guidance/guideline/principles-transparency-and-best-practice-scholarly-publishing), and applicable ICMJE provisions, January 2026 (https://www.icmje.org/recommendations/). The transparency principles were developed by COPE (https://publicationethics.org), DOAJ (https://doaj.org), OASPA (https://oaspa.org) and WAME (https://wame.org); OASPA also hosts the text (https://www.oaspa.org/resources/principles-of-transparency-and-best-practice-in-scholarly-publishing/). The policies bind authors, editors and reviewers.
Decisions depend on scholarly quality, originality, reliability and scope, irrespective of origin, citizenship, beliefs, affiliation or commercial interests. The publisher supports editorial independence and correction of the scholarly record. Editors and reviewers maintain confidentiality and do not use unpublished material for personal benefit. An editor with a conflict is recused; editorial personnel’s articles receive independent assessment under the usual rules.
Authors are responsible for reliability, attribution and third-party rights. Fabrication, falsification, plagiarism, concealed duplicate publication and simultaneous submission to multiple journals are unacceptable. Data and explanations are supplied upon a justified request, subject to lawful restrictions and participants’ consent. A preprint is disclosed on submission and is not itself duplicate publication.
Every author must meet all four ICMJE criteria: substantial contribution to conception, design, acquisition, analysis or interpretation of data; drafting or substantial intellectual revision; approval of the final version; and accountability for the work and assistance in resolving accuracy or integrity concerns. Other contributions are acknowledged with consent. The corresponding author obtains all co-authors’ agreement to submission and the final text. Changes to the author list or order before or after acceptance require reasons and written agreement from everyone affected, including persons added or removed; after publication, a correction documents the change. In a dispute, the editors may suspend assessment and contact the authors’ institutions; they do not replace an authorship investigation. Such a dispute alone is not grounds for retracting reliable work.
Authors disclose funding, grant numbers where available, the funder’s role, and financial and non-financial interests; absence of funding or conflicts is stated explicitly. Editors and reviewers also disclose conflicts and recuse themselves from affected assessments. Errors or breaches should be reported to the journal’s email address on the Contacts page. Authors cooperate with the editors and publisher in investigations and corrections before and after publication.
Where applicable, authors identify the ethics committee and give the approval number and date or exemption grounds. Medical research involving humans follows the WMA Declaration of Helsinki, 2024 revision (https://www.wma.net/policies-post/wma-declaration-of-helsinki/). Authors report informed consent or an approved waiver; publishing identifying details requires appropriate separate consent. Animal studies report approvals and compliance with applicable national and institutional rules.
